Houston's chef and restaurateurs profiles

Learn more about the top culinary minds that put the Bayou City on the map.

By Compiled by Andrea Waguespack

Photo: Karen Warren/Staff

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Museum Park Cafe

A highly-esteemed local chef is back and ready to shake things up in the Bayou City. Justin Basye (left) has spent the last few years working behind the scenes for Pappas Restaurants, but he's stepping out to run his own kitchen at the new Museum Park Cafe, which is now scheduled to open Sept. 5.

Keep clicking to see which chefs and restaurateurs shape up Houston's culinary scene. less

Museum Park Cafe

A highly-esteemed local chef is back and ready to shake things up in the Bayou City. Justin Basye (left) has spent the last few years working behind the scenes for Pappas Restaurants, but he's ... more

Museum Park Cafe A highly-esteemed local chef is back and ready... Photo-6147749.81520 - Houston Chronicle

Vallone'sDespite his boyish grin, Vallone's chef Grant Gordon is a bit of an old
soul. His favorite cocktail is a martini with two olives, and the last
book he read was F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender Is the Night.' He says
things like, "I worry that young cooks today don't appreciate history."

It's hard to tell whether this throwback mentality is a cause or an
effect of Gordon's early success. A graduate of the Culinary Institute
of America, Gordon served stints at Cafe Boulud in New York and Cyrus in
Napa Valley before returning to Houston and taking the helm as
executive chef at Italian fine dining see-and-be-scene Tony's at the
tender age of 23. Since then he's earned a rare four stars from Alison
Cook, been named a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef
Award in 2012 and included on Forbes' list of 30 notable people younger
than 30 in the food and wine industries.

One thing you may not know about Gordon:

"My favorite kitchen tool is a spoon. It's the one I use the most. You
use it to taste the food; what could be more important than that?"

"We're a company that's always at 75 percent - working on things in the future, tweaking things in the present," Cooper said. "We're not 100 percent done because we're always working on things, improving things. That tells a story about us as a group."

For Latigue, it's an effortless mash-up of flavors; it's in his
blood. His Cuban mother is from Havana and his Creole father is from
Lake Charles. Born and raised in Houston, Latigue said he ate well
growing up because his mother was a "fantastic" cook who always had
arroz Cubano (fried rice) at the ready, as well as a pot of red beans or
black beans.

"We are a fried-rice family," he said. "At my house, there was always a bean on the stove and fried bananas."

"Opening the restaurant was one of the hardest things I ever had to do,
aside from being a father," said the chef, who packed his knives at
Liberty Kitchen & Oyster Bar in the Heights to open the posh sister
restaurant in October. "Everyone needs new challenges and this was an
extreme challenge."

One thing you may not know about Lenig:

"My staff probably doesn't know it but I love being outdoors, hiking, waterskiing and snow skiing." less

Ninfa'sA lot of people in Houston feel they have a connection to Ninfa's on
Navigation - culinary, spiritual, familial bonds that link them to the
house that Mama Ninfa Laurenzo built.

Nelson Serrano, the restaurant's bar manager, is no exception. The El Salvador-born Serrano moved in
his teens to Harlingen, the same heart of the Rio Grande Valley where
Ninfa Rodriguez was born and raised. As the new bar manager at Ninfa's
on Navigation, Serrano said he has the utmost respect for the
restaurant's history and legacy.

"I feel fortunate to be a part of it - part of history," he said.

One thing you may not know about Serrano:

"I like Kid Rock's music, especially when he mixes country and hip-hop."

No need to panic. Chef Roberto Castre isn't making wholesale changes
to the menu or losing the Peruvian flair he so expertly weaved into his
winning Latin fare. But he and his partners - his sister, Rita Castre,
and her husband, Carlos Ramos - felt they needed to expand the menu to
include a few more dishes that Houstonians would recognize; gateway
dishes that will get people who are unfamiliar with Castre's cooking in
the door.

"We are trying to be more friendly to local people," the baby-face
32-year-old chef said. "We're bringing in more familiar dishes, but
we're putting our own touch on it. A Latin touch."

One thing you may not know about Castre:

"I love dancing - salsa, bachata, merengue, any Latin music. Dancing
making me so happy and relaxes me. Unfortunately, I don't get to dance
that often, but I'm going to make time for it because I love to dance."

"These
days, it's cool to do ramen. But no one wants to make the noodles from
scratch every day because it's tough. No one wants to cook and clean
broth for 36 hours when you can buy the pure white concentrate from a
supplier," he said. "You can even buy pork belly that's already cooked
and ready to go."

One thing you may not know about Tran:"My favorite kitchen tool is my commercial green onion shredder. We go
through a case of green onions every hour. The first week, we did it by
hand and lost staff." less

The Mexico City native, whose four grandparents all hail from Spain,
currently is bringing Spanish realness to the Uptown Park restaurant
whose kitchen she took over in August. If 1252 wasn't grounded in
Spanish authenticity before, it is now.

"I think at some point the restaurant stopped being authentically Spanish so I wanted to bring that back," Gomez said.

One thing you may not know about Gomez:

I love bananas but ironically enough I've never done anything with them.
They're on my list of ingredients to play with in the kitchen.

"There's so much competition in the city, it makes it challenging. We
want to stay relevant, which is why we try to keep evolving," said the
chef with exacting standards. "It's an evolution. If we want to be here
10 years from now, we have to pay attention to what people want."

One thing you may not know about Hildebrand:

"A favorite guilty pleasure is chicken fried steak - from just about
anywhere. I think it's a childhood thing. As much carbs, gluten and
gravy as possible, please!"

Tony'sKate McLean is a quick mover. In only a matter of years in the
restaurant industry, she has gone from making salads and flipping
burgers to executing the most accomplished fine dining dishes in Texas.
At 29, she finds herself at the top of the culinary heap in Houston, as
the new chef de cuisine at the tony Tony's restaurant.

When asked how she feels to be the first woman to head up the kitchen
at one of Houston's most iconic restaurants, she said she sometimes
just needs to step back and gain perspective. "Take a deep breath and
smile," she said. "At the end of the day, you do your work and try to
lead a normal life."

One thing you may not know about McLean:

"Central Market is my happy place. I could just walk around and around
and around in circles. Everyone is so nice and helpful. I think I'll
retire there."

Tony's
Kate McLean is a quick mover. In only a matter of years in the restaurant industry, she has gone from making salads and flipping burgers to executing the most accomplished fine dining dishes in Texas. ... more

Photo: Tony's

Tony's Kate McLean is a quick mover. In only a matter of... Photo-5339326.81520 - Houston Chronicle

It was certified master chef Fritz Gitschner who provided Mark Gabriel Medina with the
best culinary advice he's ever had: "He said, 'Don't follow the money,
follow the talent,' " Medina recalls. "He said if you're doing it for
the money, you'll never become great. If you have the skills and the
talent, money will follow you. It has stuck with me since and had become
my creed."One thing you may not know about Medina:"I love 'Game of Thrones.' I wanted to read the books some years back,
but now that it's on TV... I enjoy the anticipation. I get melancholy
when I'm nearing the end of a great book or series." less

Osteria MazzantiniOsteria Mazzantini chef Paul K. Lewis grew up in England in the village of Yattendon, about
an hour west of London, or as he likes to say, next door to Bucklebury,
"the home of our future queen," Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

Life for the young English lad sounds as normal and homey as an
American slice of Mayberry. He grew up in a home that worked a good
garden and baked its own bread. Farm-to-table dining wasn't a culinary
trend, it was a way of life. "We'd get fresh pheasants, partridge and
hares directly from the game keeper. Kids were selling pike from the
river. We had local eggs, and fresh cream and cheese from not too far
away," said the 37-year-old chef. "To me, that's just how it was."

One thing you might not know about Lewis:

"My favorite hangout in Houston is Red Lion - as close to a British pub experience as you can get here."

The Thai street food (charcoal-grilled chicken and
shrimp, the braised pork), the sushi in Japan (featuring only the
freshest fish and seafood), and even the fruit and vegetables
presentations were all grounded in simplicity, he said.

"It was
all very simple, but amazing," said the executive chef of Kata Robata.
"The sushi tasted so good because it was so simple. In the U.S., it's so
complicated."

One thing you may not know about Horiuchi:

"The worst thing you can do in front of a sushi chef at a sushi bar is ask, 'What is fresh today?'"

Rosemont Social ClubBartender Curtis Childress makes a drink at Rosemont Social Club, the two-level space - intimate cocktail bar on the ground floor; expansive
patio upstairs - sports a marvelously cool design in the space that used
to be Prive Lounge on Westheimer.

But if she's feeling the pressure of opening Coppa Osteria - the
first offshoot of Coppa Ristorante Italiano - she's not showing the
strain. In fact, she says she can't wait to start feeding people at the
casual neighborhood Italian restaurant set to open this week in Rice
Village.

"It's exciting to be able to see a spin-off happen of what we've been
doing successfully for years," Key said. "Right now, I'm antsy. I just
want to do it."

One thing you might not know about Key:"I am an avid, albeit amateur, photographer. I prefer black and white and
medium format film. I like having to slow down and think through every
part of taking a photograph." less

One thing you may not know about Hernandez:"I'd have to win the lottery first but if I did, I'd fly straight to
Vienna, Austria. I would unpack my bags at the Sacher hotel, tour the
Austrian palaces, eat at the pastry shops, enjoy the scenic views, and
attend a Vienna Boys' Choir concert at the Schönbrunn Palace." less

PregoIt's one of the most overused phrases in the restaurant business: Save room for dessert.

And yet how many diners actually do that? Whether it's a time crunch,
or counting calories or just trying to keep the bill down, there are
plenty of excuses for bypassing the dessert tray.

Matthew Zoch wants to change that. The pastry chef has been at Prego
restaurant in Rice Village only a year, but he is already adept at
coaxing customers to end their meals on a sweet note. He's wooing them
with lighter-than-air soufflés, lip-smacking lemon tarts, fruit
bejeweled panna cotta; and dense, creamy ice cream. His desserts, which
provide a perfect conclusion to chef John Watt's accomplished Italian
menu, carry the stamp of a much more seasoned pastry chef.

One thing you may not know about Zoch:

"I am an REI geek. If I'm not at Prego, I'm usually rock climbing or camping with a group of buddies somewhere out near Austin."

"It's almost like I'm a drug dealer and I'm feeding people crack
right now," he said jokingly of his temporary pop-up that's acting as an
addictive precursor to his restaurant. "When we open it's going to be
very busy."

One thing you might not know about Killen:

"The majority of my TV watching is the Food Network. I watch 'Top Chef'
because they're creating stuff on the fly and I think that's cool. I
also like to watch 'Chopped.'"

CamerataDavid Keck opened Camerata, the progressive wine bar where
hard-core oenophiles and budding wine aficionados alike have their own
charming chamber to celebrate the pleasures of the vine.

"I like to say we do wines from people who come from places. I feel a
need to tell a story - of a special place, climate, people," Keck said.
"I think people are hungry for a place where they can sit at a bar and
know the story of what's in the glass before them."

"Timing," he says, returned him to Houston where he quickly got to
work on a taco truck business, an idea he said he entertained even
before his time at Yelapa.

One thing you might not know about Wiley:

"I cooked for Joël Robuchon once, neither of us was really impressed. I'd
love to cook for (actor) Adam Sandler, he seems like he's at a point in
life where he's looking for something significant, and it would be
interesting to have that kind of "conversation" with him." less

Taco Nuts food truck
Chef L.J. Wiley (here with his girlfriend Brandy Stephenson) of Taco Nuts food truck is known throughout the city. The chef, whom foodies will remember for the invention and imagination he ... more

Revival MarketAdam Dorris, the chef de cuisine at Revival Market, went down an unconventional path to get to his current career. was working as a
hot tub salesman in Oklahoma when he won a company trip to Chicago. It
was there, during a celebratory dinner at Grant Achatz's cutting-edge
restaurant Alinea, that he had a revelation.

"It wasn't like the best meal I've ever had, but it was the most
amazing experience I've witnessed - seeing people's bodies respond to
that food," the affable 30-year-old Dorris said, recalling the moment he
knew he wanted to become a chef. "It was my first inspiration of what
food could be."

One thing you might not know about Dorris:

"I just watched an episode a day of 'Mad Men' for the past 2½ months so I
would know what the hell everyone in our kitchen was talking about all
the time."

Revival Market
Adam Dorris, the chef de cuisine at Revival Market, went down an unconventional path to get to his current career. was working as a hot tub salesman in Oklahoma when he won a company trip to ... more

Third Coast food truckIn the past year and a half, Third Coast food truck's Ruth Lipsky (which used to be called Stick It) has turned
all sorts of gourmet foods - brie, anyone? - into street food by serving
them on sticks. (While the concept was creative enough to earn Lipsky a
turn on the Cooking Channel show "Eat Street," it had a few drawbacks.

"Surprisingly, it's very limited, the things that will stay on a
stick," said Lipsky. "Plus, with Stick It, we weren't able to do late
night ... I just couldn't explain to drunk people what couscous salad on
a stick was. I just didn't have it in me."

One thing you might not know about Lipsky:

"The last book I read, if I'm going to be completely honest, is 'Twilight.' I'm kind of on a vampire kick right now."

Third Coast food truck In the past year and a half, Third Coast... Photo-4900215.81520 - Houston Chronicle

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Mighty
Sweet Mini PiesYou know what they say about good things and small packages. Mighty
Sweet Mini Pies, a sugar-crusted business on North Main, proves
that bigger is not necessarily better.

The wee, wedge-shaped store's menu only boasts pies. Small, individual pies - a perfectly generous portion for
one. Truthfully, two can share a mini pie but they're so good you'll
want to hog the whole thing for yourself.

"She was a wonderful baker and wonderful cook who always wanted a
place like this but never got one," Birden said of her mother, whose
framed portrait sits behind the display case of pies. "Now we're doing
it."

One thing you may not know about Birden:

"I like the movie 'Auntie Mame.' You have to love someone who believes
that 'life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.;"

Mighty
Sweet Mini Pies You know what they say about good things... Photo-4808343.81520 - Houston Chronicle

Image 28 of 46

D&T Drive InnChris Cusack wasn't in the market to open an ice house, but when he
saw the neighborhood dive D&T Drive Inn, something inside his
entrepreneurial heart stirred. Then after hanging out in the
Heights-area bar - rough around the edges and unapologetically off the
hip grid - he saw potential.

"I saw (D&T) could be really cool - a cool, quiet place for a
beer," said the owner of the Heights-area restaurant, Down House.
"There's something really Houston-y about it."

One thing you may not know about Cusack:

"My dream vacation would be back in the islands around Thailand. I went
in 2005, and I think about it often. It's the most relaxed I've ever
been."

About the only thing Rikesh Patel had going for him was an intense love for Indian food and the desire to own a restaurant.

And, like that, he made it happen. He took over a postage-stamp space
that used to be a Moroccan restaurant near Shepherd and Highway 59,
gave it a hip new look and then opened in January without any
advertising and zero marketing.

One thing you may not know about Patel:

"A celebrity chef I admire? Paula Deen. Just kidding! Chris Shepherd is a
bad dude. I get nervous around that guy, like I should be chopping
onions or something."

Pistolero'sHow wise is it to open a taco and tequila joint in between the
venerable Hugo's and the mega-Mex El Real on a restaurant rich stretch
of Westheimer?

Very, if you're Shawn Bermudez, owner of the new Pistolero's. The
retailer/restaurateur had eyed other locations for his new
restaurant/bar concept but when the space formerly occupied by Nabi came
available, he threw his sombrero in the ring. The result is an
eye-catching and sophisticated tribute to agave juice and corn tortilla
glories.

"This is a perfect fit on so many levels," Bermudez said. "I live in the neighborhood and I want to draw attention to Montrose."

One thing you may not know about Bermudez:

"My dream vacation would be anywhere that does not have cellphone or Internet service."

Pistolero's How wise is it to open a taco and tequila joint... Photo-4632014.81520 - Houston Chronicle

Image 32 of 46

Eleven XIWhen is the last time you craved a Cornish game hen?

For a lot of people, it's been awhile; the domestic chickens can come off as old fashioned, even dowdy.

But Kevin Bryant is making the Cornish cool with a deep fried whole
clucker that will make you forget the continental trappings that
normally attend the hen. At his new restaurant, Eleven XI, chef Bryant
is taking a brined hen and deep frying it to a golden brown and setting
it on a bed of fries.

"It's very simple and clean, and we put a lot of (research and
development) into it," he said of his crispy bird. "It's also something
different. It's like your own personal fried turkey."

One thing you may not know about Bryant:

"My guilty pleasure is late night ice cream. There was a bit of an
ulterior motive for suggesting the scope of the ice cream program we're
launching here."

On a global scale,
it could be argued that Chavez is not only the most famous chef in the
city, but with 40 million viewers from the U.S. to Argentina regularly
watching him on TV, he could be one of the most famous people living in
Houston, period.

Monarch at Hotel ZaZaJonathan Jones was tapped as executive chef of Monarch
at Hotel ZaZa, a job that on the face of it doesn't seem like a logical
fit. After all, Jones might be best known (and loved) for things like
fried chicken, burgers and wings from his work at Max's Wine Dive,
Beaver's and Xuco Xicana. What sometimes gets lost in the culinary
discourse is his fine dining training at restaurants such as Aries,
Américas and Ouisie's Table.

"I got known as the burger guy," Jones said. "As a chef who takes his craft seriously, it wasn't entirely fair."

One thing you may not know about Jones:

"My staff probably doesn't know that I was in marching band or that I was
a theater arts major. I am sure they don't know that I can dance
six-count swing/jitterbug, or that I spent many years training various
combat martial arts."

BatangaBen McPherson is the chef at Batanga downtown. No one who comes to Houston should be surprised by the city's
welcoming nature. But McPherson - even though he moved here from
Atlanta, a city that prides itself on Southern hospitality - remains
awed by the Houston's friendliness.

"(People have) been welcoming and given a great sense of community
like I've never seen," he said, adding that Houston chefs and
restaurateurs have been especially hospitable.

One thing you may not know about McPherson:

I grew up a Braves and Cubs fan. And my great-uncle was Bear Bryant's
coach when he played for Alabama, so definitely a 'Bama fan.

The Houston native was running the bar programs at Gravitas and
Textile restaurants four years ago when Bobby Heugel, who was slinging
drinks at Beaver's at the time, approached him about a bar he was
opening called Anvil that would focus on craft cocktails made properly.
Anvil, of course, would quickly become the progenitor of Houston's craft
cocktail boom.

"We were the only two guys doing research, tinkering with recipes,
making our own ingredients, using fresh juice and just doing things the
right way, stirring things that are supposed to be stirred and shaking
things that are supposed to be shaken," recalls Burrow.

One thing you may not know about Burrow:

"My favorite drink for years and years has been a Manhattan. It's simple,
classic, easy, masculine, all of the things that a cocktail is in my
mind."

For the chef, the first part of that advice is both
literal and figurative: He fusses over the cauldrons of hot broth that
will go into making the restaurant's signature ramen - and his workplace
happens to be one of the hottest culinary must-do's in town.

One thing you may not know about Coffman:

"My dream vacation would be to spend a month traveling all through Asia,
eating and seeing the food I love the most. I would hopefully even be
allowed to work in a few kitchens."

The Cajun StopThe Cajun Stop is a real deal New Orleans-style po-boy shop that chef Lisa
Carnley began in 2009 with partners who have since moved on. In an
unassuming spot on the eastern edge of downtown, it is frequented by
repeat customers whose good word of mouth also draws plenty of newbies.

Carnley has invested the modest operation with an abundance of
let-the-good-times-roll bonhomie and, of course, good food. She grew up
knowing Cajun staples from working in her grandparent's po-boy shop in
Mississippi, and from living in Houma, La.

"I've known since I was a little girl that I wanted a restaurant," she said.

One thing you may not know about Carnley:

"I'd like to go to Vietnam one day, since that's where my ancestors came
from, just to say "yes, I've been." Everyone says you have to visit your
homeland at least once."

"My favorite food is sushi, which is very different than what I cook. I
truly love the combination of wasabi/soy sauce/pickled ginger, and I
love the chefs at the sushi bar preparing it in front of you."

Restaurant Cinq at La Colombe d'OrWhen the bookkeepers at Restaurant Cinq at La Colombe d'Or wondered
why their bottled water costs were so high, they quickly found the
culprit: it was their own new chef.

Restaurant Cinq at La Colombe d'Or
When the bookkeepers at Restaurant Cinq at La Colombe d'Or wondered why their bottled water costs were so high, they quickly found the culprit: it was their own new chef. ... more

Gatlin's BBQThe tiny storefront in the Heights that houses Gatlin's BBQ has a
line that snakes out the door most days. In a city where many barbecue
operations boast generations of owners and decades of experience,
Gatlin's was an immediate sensation when it opened in 2010. The
restaurant landed atop lists of Houston's best barbecue, including the
No. 22 spot on Chronicle critic Alison Cook's top 100 local restaurants
list.

Gatlin's BBQ
The tiny storefront in the Heights that houses Gatlin's BBQ has a line that snakes out the door most days. In a city where many barbecue operations boast generations of owners and decades of ... more

Adair KitchenGrowing up working the cashier and bartending at his parents'
restaurants, Los Tios and Skeeter's, Nick Adair says he
always envisioned himself in the family business. But for Adair, the
road to his current gig as GM and co-owner at Adair Kitchen included a
couple of detours.

After majoring in finance at Texas Christian University, Adair took a
job at a Wyoming dude ranch looking for adventure and something a
little different.

"I was dragging my feet on joining the real world a little bit," Adair said.

One thing you may not know about Adair:

"The last good movie I saw was 'Silver Linings Playbook.' I thought it
was really funny, and it's not that often I get time to see movies
anymore."

"As far as the restaurant itself, it matured very quickly. I have a
staff that got up to speed really quickly and has become very
consistent. That's the goal: to get to that level of consistency," said Edwards.

One thing you may now know about Edwards:

"I'm a fantasy nerd - 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit.' I have
them sitting beside my bed, and I read them all the time. One guy at
work has me reading 'The Fountainhead.' I just started it."

"It's always kind of neat to do those kinds of projects because the more
limitations there are, the more you have to think it through," said
Smith. "Anybody can come up with good dishes; coming up with good dishes
that have the limitation of pairing well with something, it's a fun
challenge. You also learn a lot about what it pairs with, so I've
learned a lot about coffee even though I still have a lot more to
learn."

One thing you may not know about Smith:

"When I am not in chef's clothes, I am wearing Lululemon yoga pants and a comfy shirt. I've accepted that they are expensive enough to wear anywhere." less